


Lines & Circles

by MissMeggie



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alien Technology, Alternate Universe, Biotechnology, F/M, Gen, Kid Fic, Original Characters - Freeform, Parallel Universes, Portal jumping, Timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-03-21 15:28:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3697427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMeggie/pseuds/MissMeggie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jemma is asked to jump into a different timeline to save her own world she does so with very little pause or thought for what awaits her on the other side... if it will be more disaster than adventure she can't say but there is just something in the way this alternate...this different Ward looks at her that let's her know he won't be easy to leave behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [weasleyspotter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleyspotter/gifts).



> AN: So I took a basic head cannon of weasleypotter's and expanded on it much more than she likely ever wanted me too but I hope she likes it anyway. This heavily influenced by Fringe and my love for the show but I'm sure it could be called an AU so much as inspiration for some parts. I own nothing Fringe or AoS related I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge my beta's PixiesNReedus and Sapphireglyphs! Thanks so much for all your help girls! If you liked it please tell me. There will be more!-MM

The meeting she is pulled into is very hush, hush. Somehow seeing Thor standing in Coulson's office in civilian clothes is oddly comforting, like he's human and not some god-like, alien humanoid.

She stepped into the room and points out rather dumbly, "I thought he was supposed to think you were dead, sir."

"That is a battle for another day, Lady Jemma. The Avengers requires your assistance." Thor answered.

"I'll help in any way I can." She replied dutifully.

"We need you to jump into another reality."Jane Foster, one of Jemma's personal idols of whom she would be fangirling over in that instant, as Skye would call it, if she wasn't so taken aback by the statement she just made from beside the God of Thunder.

"Come again."

"I have it on good authority that a threat capable of disbanding and destroying theAvengers is coming to Midgard to render all of the human Avengers useless with the abilityto deactivate their powers-" Thor expounds further.

"So, we need you and an otherworldly Fitz to neutralize the threat." Jane finishes crossing her arms and eyeing Jemma.

"I'm still stuck on time travel." She retorted dryly.

"Oh no, you aren't time traveling, though that is in theory possible. You're simply stepping into an alternate timeline." She stepped up to the board. "We as humans are taught to experience time in a linear fashion." She drew a straight line. "But in fact it's much more complex and flexible… each choice you make forms your life but say…"

"I make a different choice the line alters and so on and so forth until my reality is different." Jemma puzzles it out herself.

"Exactly!"

"Then there could be thousands of alternates."

"Indeed, andI have stepped into one such alternate Midgard and will guide you through to the other side. There are weak spots in the time fabric as Jane calls them… melds where we sometimes see the other reality or experience déjà vu. I will tear open a meld and you will step through to retrieve the other human named Fitz. Who is not dead as he is here."

The idea of a living breathing Fitz makes her heart race for that reason alone, she abruptly shouts, "I'll do it!"

She then paused. "But how will I return to …here?"

"I will give you a portal creating device from Asgard." Thor said shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

"So I just have to retrieve alternate Leo and hurry back to eliminate threats that don't exist yet but will?" She clarified.

"I have encountered the threat before in the other world." Thor answered. "When I accidently stepped into the world, it was in midst of a battle with another alien race known as Cullers. They release a contagion into the air that renders all humans into drones." He paused for breath. "That world thus far is the only one within the thousands of timelines to withstand battle. That is thanks in part to you and Fitz. The other world is far more technologically advanced. Most if not all of the humans had biotechnology in them created by you that rendered them impossible to co-opt. We need you to figure out what in your technologies made them mostly immune to the Cullers devastation." Thor finished looking intently at her. "They have laid waste to thousands of timelines Lady Jemma."

"And if that Fitz is nothing like this… my Fitz was?" She asked looking to Foster.

"That's a chance we have to take Simmons." Coulson shrugged.

"And if I run into my alternate self and create a paradox?"

"That will not be a problem as alternate you has been removed from the equation." Thor said. "Hence needing your help from this world." He finished.

-/-/-/-

Jemma's guts twisted as Thor opened a portal. "Simply step through Lady Jemma and you should be in front of your New York City Habitation." Thor said placing a pocket watch in her hand. "This is the device that to bring you back. It is a relic of Midgard one of the first portal makers. Simply stand in the place you wish to return to and wind it." He explained.

She nods afraid speaking could lead to vomiting. She stepped through. This world is dingier more battle worn and crumbling. She walked to a news stand papers hailed the inauguration of President John Garrett. The thought makes her blood run cold so she kept looking about.

Some vehicles float in the sky. It is an eerily silent place as a result. Some drive but the engines only make a quiet sputter.

As she looked skyward though she saw two major differences. The Twin Towers are still standing and Avengers Tower simply bares the Stark name. "Different choices." She murmured to herself walking up the steps.

Dr. Foster had warned the jump would make her groggy and she started to feel tiredness descend on her. She hurried inside before she fell asleep on her feet.

When she unlocked her apartment the walls are the same sedate blue as her own living room. The same orderly book shelves. Then something catches her eye children's toys are strewn about one corner. A tiny shopping cart holds a baby doll and Barbie dolls litter the floor.

She is no longer fatigued as it is taken over by fascination.

Alternate Jemma must have a child. Suddenly curious she wandered the apartment looking at photos. There's one of who she thinks of as other Fitz holding a baby standing next to a young woman who looks uncannily like her. There are various snap shots with the child. Though none of them contain Jemma herself there is one photo of Jemma in the entire place. It's above the mantle she is standing on a beach in a gauzy white dress smiling brightly in the arms of Grant Ward. Panic seizes her. She was married to Ward! What in the fuck all kind of universe is this that she has married a man like Ward?

She went directly to the kitchen and armed herself with a steak knife. No version of Ward can be trusted in her mind after all he is responsible for Fitz's death.

She does a farther sweep. Very little of other Jemma's belongings remain but for her lab coat hangs rather hauntingly on the coat rack. She finds the girl's room painted an orchid kind of purple. The name "Laurel" spelt out above the bed.

Its pin neat but all other feminine presence is gone but for this room,

She wondered idly if she is dead to this world as Fitz is to hers. Because her world is darker with the absence of Leo's gorgeous blinding spark. Her life is infinitely less than what it was before. It is excruciatingly less without him finishing her thoughts and sentences. She is less. She is less of herself. Only half as smart as she was in the moments before he'd professed to being in love with her. Loving her so much deeper than she knew was logically possible. He loved her enough to sacrifice himself. Quite literally giving her his last breath.

Yes, she must be gone she thinks as she looks at a picture of this other Leo and tears prick her eyes. It is only fair that she is gone from this world. Cosmic balance clearly being a true and real thing.

The door knob turns and she gripped the watch tightly in one hand while she stashed the knife behind her back with the other. She hadn't heard anyone coming. She took a steadying breath.

When the man walked through the door his visage the exact same as his dopple ganger from her world hair a bit too long and his face is sporting the same scruff.

He doesn't see her standing there. He's looking down at the little girl chattering next to him.

She clears her throat. He looked up and jumped back from her on instinct. "Holy shit."

"Daddy that's a bad word. Real bad." The little girl informed him helpfully.

Utter shock covered alternate Ward's face and Jemma felt badly for it wishing there was an easier less jarring way to do this.

He inched closer to her and for some odd reason Jemma felt no fear. The eyes she's staring into are not filled with darkness and hardship. They're starting to fill with tears though. His jaw ticks as he holds himself in check. He looked peaky as well.

"How? What did Leo cook up I told your sister I didn't want a holo-partner. I want the real thing or nothing at all." He said sounding slightly hysterical talking more at her than to her.

"You should sit." She offered gently.

"I'll stand thank you. Fucking thing…made to look like my wife! How dare they!" He snarled bitterly.

"Daddy she has a knife." The little girl says as she has crept around Jemma in curiosity.

In his surprise at seeing his dead wife he'd obviously forgotten Laurel's presence entirely. "Go to your room." He barked.

"But Daddy-"

"Damn it!" He cursed yet again as if he had to do something he would like to avoid.

Then in a flash he has her arm twisted up and the knife clattering to the floor. "What the fuck are you!" He growled in her ear.

He definitely sounded more like the Ward she knew in her fear she dropped the watch it fell to the hardwood floor with a crack that was deafening to Jemma's ears as it sounded like fate saying. "You've lost your way home."

She shook off the morbid thought "You'd best ring Fitz. It's complicated Ward. Let me go please I mean you no harm Grant. I swear. "She stammered nervously. This Ward isn't as dark and deadly but it is well within his wheelhouse.

"No harm just heart break right?" he releases her gently. He slumps down on to the couch. "You died in the culling battle. How are you here?" He said so morosely Jemma wanted to weep for this strange Ward. "Three years and now…" He muttered to himself.

The little girl stepped forward and pinched her. Jemma startled slightly. "You're real. Are you my Mommy? You look like my Mommy?" She asked looking up at her with Ward's eyes set in Jemma's own face from her younger years. Her hair is inky black matching her fathers. It's unsettling how beautiful and smart the child is.

"Oh I'm so going to muck this up." She lamented as the girl prattled on.

"Hi Sorta Mommy Person! I'm Laurel. I'm three." She offered her hand.

Jemma shook her delicate hand. She wore a little gold ring Jemma recognized. She had the same one. It had been her grandmothers. "I'm Jemma Simmons and I'm twenty eight." She parroted back quickly. As she tried not to get lost in her thoughts.

She bent to pick up the seemingly unharmed timepiece. She took a relieved breath of lavender scented air.

Other World Ward sighed and stood. "I'm going to call Leo and Ruby before you give my daughter a complex or something." He said lowly.

"Really she's handling this best of all. The mind of a child can comprehend more than you might think. Their thought processes are much more elastic I wouldn't worry too much. It's likely once I leave this time line that the world will right its self and reform to delete my existence." Jemma informed him

"And it even rambles nonsense I only half understand like Jem. Lovely." He muttered as he walked to the kitchen stopping to pick up her discarded weapon.

For the first time in her life Jemma is completely out of her depth it is the single most unsettling feeling she can recall experiencing.

"So Kinda Mommy," Laurel said conversationally. "Wanna play til Aunt Rue and Leo get here? Daddy is boring he don't like Barbie's."

"Doesn't sweetie." Jemma corrected ever the teacher. "He doesn't like Barbie's. Which is a travesty I agree. Playing would be nice…relaxing." Jemma decided. "Lead the way Laurel." She held out her hand a sshe awaited the next step in the adventure.


	2. Chapter 2

"It's entirely to humanoid to be a holo-wife." Fitz speaks about her as if she isn't there. "Maybe it's you're new Andriodian partner. Sending you a partner that looks like your wife seems like something commander Coulson would do an attempt to be kind." Fitz mused.

"The Triplett Droid works fine." Other Ward bites out looking at her like she is a bug in need of squishing.

"I look human because I am human you idiots." She grouses in return.

"She sounds entirely too much like Jemmie." Ruby says from couch as she holds an excited Laurel in her lap.

"I think it's just a Mommy Droid." Laurel said. "Or just a real Mommy."

"I'm not your Mummy darling I mean I am but I'm not bloody hell." Jemma rolls her eyes at herself for talking herself into proverbial circles.

"Turn it off its giving me the Hebe gebes." Ruby added on.

"Sure thing Rue the off button is usually near the sacrum." Fitz says reaching out and grabbing her ass.

"Leopold Reginald Fitz! If you do not remove your hand from my arse you will pull back a nub." She orders haughtily.

"No switch, maybe the newer models have different switch placement." Fitz said peering down her blouse.

"Of all the worlds… I really don't like fresh Fitz!" she mutters walking to the kitchen. "Very rude if you ask me!" She grabbed a paring knife and cut her finger when the blood rose she turned back to them as they'd followed her. Robots last I checked do not bleed." She shoves her finger at Fitz.

They all stand there in varying degrees of shock. "Person who looks like my Mommy but really isn't my Mommy do you need a band aid? I have the new ones that put black widow on your skin when it's better. She is my favorite cartoon. Is it alright if I just call you Mommy I never knew her but you look like her so it'd be easier."

Jemma is a bit boggled by Laurel's simple acceptance but takes it "Mummy is fine if that's what you like Darling. My name is Jemma though."

"So's mine! I'm Laurel Jemma after you! Daddy didn't get too creative. He said you'd have liked to name me Sophie after Sophie St. Germaine but it reminded him a dog. Laurel is another term for Bay and since you guys meted on the San Francisco Bay-"

"We met sweetheart…not meeted." Grant corrects as he stepped toward her. "Let me tend to that." He took her hand between his own. "Laurel was the only name we even halfway agreed on." He says inspecting the cut.

"It's a nick Ward...honestly I'm fine."

Ruby suddenly broke from her reverie and rushed at Jemma in a hug. The other woman is obviously distressed and she's vibrating with the effort it takes to hold back her tears. Jemma feels for her she had almost broken down at the sight of Fitz. "It will be alright Ruby, Everything is fine dear."

When Jemma returns her embrace the girl's reserve breaks and she cries in earnest. "How? How are you here?"

"I'm from a parallel universe. That is facing an imminent attack from the Cullers you have already faced. I need Leo's help in determining how to best them." She answers honestly feeling Ward gently treat her tiny wound with a black widow band aid.

Leo asks the question she knows is coming but dreads all the same. "If there is alternate of our Jemma where is the alternate of me?"

"You're deceased." She says plainly fighting the urge to flinch at her own words.

"How did I die?"

"You drowned. The why doesn't matter." She flinches anyway.

-/-/-

That night as other Ward made out the couch he kept sneaking glances at her. "I'll take the couch Jem."

"I'm fine…" She insists.

He straightens from putting a sheet on the couch. "Why do you keep looking at me like that? Like I'll hurt you the second your guard is down? How did you become so cynical? My Jemma had the most hopeful heart and I can't imagine any world, any version of you being faithless."

"Faith can be broken Ward." She said with more force than needed.

"Please call me Grant you haven't- "He sputtered gesturing helplessly between them. "She didn't call me Ward."

"Grant then… my faith in people, science, friendships and myself every bit was broken and so yes, I have no faith left." She explained more kindly.

"And yet you're here on blind faith that your world is savable and worth saving all you need is a mustard seed Jemma." He points out and it strikes her that in some ways the Wards are very different.

"I'll keep that in mind."

She lay awake all night tossing and turning on the couch. She wasn't in New York often so she'd never slept on it she thinks she might buy something with less lumps.

-/-/-/-

She gets up the next morning and makes coffee with her French press. She can feel Ward or Grant or whoever staring at her legs in exceptionally short sleep shorts she'd borrowed from Ruby.

She catches him as she's pouring her cup. "Wished I could say I'm sorry but I'm really not…you have great legs." He gives her a wolfish unrepentant grin.

"Ah, there's some of the guy I know. Lucky for you his propensity for blatant unapologetic flirtation is one of his more charming qualities when it's not bald faced manipulation."

`"I guess Alternate Me isn't nice?" He asked conversationally. His own protein shake half way to his mouth.

"Not really no, I'm sorry but that is what makes you so fascinating. I mean it does make me wonder where your choices and his diverge. Was it the choice of your parents or the choice to not follow Garrett off the cliff? I mean what made this…" she gestured between them. "Happen. How did she end up a mother I can barely keep Fitz's Chia Pet alive?" She asked taking a sip of her coffee.

Grant smiled a warm sorrowful lift of his lips. "She shared your fear. I remember telling her babies were more durable than house plants and less scary than disease cultures. She never did buy it but… it ended up being much more tragic than we planned." He scowled. "You can take some of Jem's clothes they're yours too after all. I gotta get moving. I need to drop Laurel off and get to the base."

He retreats without another word.

She had showered in the guest bath and was dressing as Grant showered. A device on the bedside table rang and projected an icy blue holographic image of Fitz on to the wall. She belatedly realized the tiny black box was a phone. She's unsure how to answer but she thinks it might be like the holotable on the bus.

The water shuts off behind her. She reaches out to tap answer as Grant opens the door wrapped in a towel. "Oh I see you got the idea." He says with an easy smile as she tries to ignore that she has always been attracted to "The Wards" at her most base level.

She taps answer before she can give it anymore thought. "Hello Fitz. Are you ready to work?"

"Yes but you'll need pants Jemma."

"Oh you can see that? Bollocks!"

"So can I, though to be fair it ain't nothin' I ain't seen before." Grant says playfully.

"Oh put on a bloody shirt!" she turned to Fitz. "You hang up."

=/=/=

Ward drops Jemma off at a low slung concrete building that is far back on what looks to be an army base if the solider like men and women bedecked in fatigues and berets are anything to go by. Then their guns add a whole different much scarier feel.

"What is this?" She asked.

"SHELTER Labs. You… She…my wife worked here. "

"So Jemma was a solider?" She asks.

"Yes and no, our government is militarized but she never saw any action she was in the sciences and I'm a guardian."

"One last question?" She said the feel of Laurel kicking the back of seat levels her out. This is regular life for them. No one is trying to get one over on her. "Just how do you plan to get to me inside? Can this world raise the dead too or…"

"I'm just going to use a deflection pallet."

"Uh huh."

"I just throw this blanket over you and you disappear. I'll carry you in." He said plainly.

"Like in Harry Potter?" She clarified.

"Harry Who?" His brows quirk.

She rolled her eyes. "You've got to be kidding? Really? Natasha bloody Romanoff is a cartoon and there is no Harry Potter."

"Mommy who's Harry Potter?"

"It's a movie from my world darling. You needn't carry me Grant I'll just lurk along like in the movie." He looks at her in momentary disappointment but it's gone in flash replaced with blankness.

He nods resolutely. "Laurel don't talk to Jemma until we're inside."

She rolls her eyes. "Daddy…I won't blow the covers."

He laughs richly and it makes Jemma's heart flutter just a little. She loves a man with a good laugh. "Are you sure you're three Laurel Jemma?" He asked.

"Yes. I'll be four soon. Why do you always ask that?"

"I'm sure you remind him of someone." Jemma explains knowingly.

-/-/=

Inside the lab it is anything but non-descript. Every surface is pristine white everything that emits light emits an eerie icy blue light. Some of the machines she has never seen. "What's this?" She rushes over to one shaped like a tic tac.

She can hear his smile. "It's a human stem cell replicator. Leo built it but it was Jemma's brain baby. They're used in hospitals all over the world to cure cancer, and autoimmune diseases. It can even create small things like skin, organs not quite yet, she died before perfecting it. It was her second to last baby." Grant explains to her.

She can hear his pride it must have been nice she'd never been loved like that. "You loved her very much. She was lucky."

"I was luckier." He smiles at her crookedly and her heart does an odd swoop. "I was loved by her."

Laurel tugs on his hand restlessly, ready to go. "I need to get her to daycare and get to my post. Leo will be in shortly. There's a kitchenette." He nods to his left if you want something."

"See ya later Kind of Mommy." Laurel says.

"Later Darling."

-/-/- /-

She wanders around the stringently clean lab and knows its Fitz's doing to keep it so clean. Jemma's station is almost bare but for the things Fitz couldn't bear to move, a microscope, centrifuge, notes, and a highly defined three dimensional model of a fetus in a frame it's a girl scrawls beneath the fetus in pink neon. Jemma's sonogram she realizes with a start.

"Could you not…" Fitz says from behind her. She hadn't heard him approach. "It was her space and no matter how hard my wife hopes otherwise you're not her. You're not our Jemma. Fitz says and she looks back him. There's a hint of steel in his gaze.

"I…understand." She backs away. "You're much more forthright in this world. Who is your wife? My Leo once had feelings for me."

"Ruby is my wife and Jemma and I were strictly platonic."

She nods "We should get to work. Time is of the essence." She moves on quickly the what if curiousness in her crushed.

"Yes I would think so, now we had surmised that the genetic marker we had put into all our bio tech was what made some of us immune. The scanning mechanisms the cullers use marked them as defective. The markers stuck out like sore thumbs." Leo explains and then asks. "Does your world have genetic coding abilities?"

"No."

"Right to simple…"

"The brain is much like a computer so if we could find a way to inject new code into…. But then the body rejects what it doesn't recognize…bollocks! May I see Jemma's notes? Files? Records?" She rattles off.

-/-/-/-

Jemma reads and reads and it feels like she's wasting her time. She only understands some of it, even though theoretically it came from her own brain. It's so much like reading the GH-325 files it makes her sick with worry for her world. Not simply Skye alone this time.

There's not much help Fitz can provide until she assimilates everything so he goes home.

In the last holofile she taps there is a tiny black square marring the otherwise clear sharp images. She taps it.

"Voice encryption." Pops up.

She decides to give it a shot. "Laurel Jemma Ward."

It opens to a video,

Last recorded remnants of mortality for Staff Sergeant Simmons-Ward." An automated voice informs her as the video pans across unbelievable smoking destruction and horrific noise fills the air.

She sees herself breaking away from Ward to cross to a zombie like May. The camera's switch view and she's looking at herself through May's eyes it's utterly disconcerting.

"Melinda it's me Jemma." She hears herself say. As she inches closer. There is a struggle and she is a top May then there is a grunt and a resounding POP! There is a whole center mass on her forehead. She slumps away from May's body.

But from the angle May is propped she can hear and see Ward…Grant… she can hear Grant screaming.

Soul searing earth shattering screams that break tears to her eyes.

He's huddled over her body protectively. Pleading with her. "No, no, no, baby please, we're going to have a baby… just please…. Don't be dead… please…" and he starts compressions and CPR. "Baby just breathe he begs non sensically." She turns away unable to watch any longer. She sweeps tears off her cheeks.

"Sometimes I hate our government. Every single second recorded.`" He sighed. "Even the worst one of my life." Comes from behind her. The second time today she has been snuck up on.

She flushes from head to toe in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have it was a huge invasion."

She shrugs shoving his hands in his pockets. "You were curious, just like her."

"I'm egregiously sorry."

"I know." He stepped toward in some ways you're so like her… it's not even that you look like her. It's that you are her and you're not. I expect lines to blur Jem. It's fine."

"Grant…"

He shakes his head slowly. "I tried all the therapies to fix it. Make her brain regenerate but the bullet was too deeply lodged. I put her on life support so I could save all I had left of her…Laurel. I locked and encrypted the file using old snippets of her voice using conversations and vocal identifiers thinking no one could ever open it. No one would ever have her voice…until now." He said with sad chagrin.

"Why not destroy it? The file I mean?

"She tried to save May's life. She had a dangerous heroic streak I believe you share. I couldn't destroy her last act of bravery and selflessness no matter how futile her effort." He said truthfully.

"I'm sorry."

"If life was easy there'd be no point. Why do you look at me with so much fear and wariness? No lies, you owe me at least that." He says it calmly but she can sense stubbornness behind it.

"My World's Ward he tried to kill me dropped Fitz and I from a plane to drown…He's sociopathic and broken and we didn't know until it was too late. Fitz forced the last bit of air we had on me and broke us out of the coffin we'd been forced into. I carried him to the surface but was too late. I look at you like I do because the other you is the reason I hate being alive." She says fiercely. He jerks as if the words physically hurt him but recovers quickly.

"Well I can promise I won't kill you and I'll try not to fall in love with you. Deal?" He says with disarming charm.

"Deal."

He sort of herds her to the door like he's had practice at it. She guesses he has. "Ready to call it a night? Do you like Thai food? The tiny person is on a kick."

"She likes Thai?"

He holds open the door leading outside for her. "She's really interesting my child."

-/-/-

The car ride home feels tense but it might be Jemma's conscience pulling at her. "Again, I'm sorry for earlier."

He placed his hand on her knee and squeezed. Jemma has a flash of the comfort she felt when Ward had saved her life. For the first time the sensation is no longer tainted by Ward's betrayal. Grant misreads the look on her face and pulls his hand away. She absolutely does not miss the contact she does not. It's only been two days. The crooked little smirk on his face as he says. "No sweat Jem." Does an odd flip flop thing to her heart.

"If you're sure…"

"I am."

-/-/-

They're in the middle of dinner and hearing about Laurel's day when idea hits her. She puts down her chopsticks with a clatter and runs into her office.

"No worries baby she'll be back." Grant says as Laurel's eyes follow Jemma. "She had idea…" He waits a beat. "3…2…1…"

"Bollocks it's a gym. My office is a gym." She laments loudly.

When she stomps back into the room he has a pen and pad waiting on her. "If our bodies will reject the genetic tags we could in theory fool the body into thinking it belongs inside us like with bone marrow transplants and immunosuppressing with chemotherapy. We would need a fast acting effective agent for system realignment without killing the subjects." She said practically vibrating with excitement.

"Uh huh… "

She cocks her head at him. "You look confused Grant."

"That's because I am. But keep going."

She is writing down chemical formulas and muttering to herself. "Could you call up Fitz on your phone cube thingy for me? I may need his help." She says with a wide and bright smile that makes Grant's heart stutter.

-/-/-/-/-

She stands with all the data and equipment she needs with Fitz in tow as she winds the Asgardian watch meant to send her home. She winds and waits and winds and waves at Laurel nothing happens.

"Jemma did you happen to damage this in some way on your trip over?" Fitz asked.

Her stomach drops. "I dropped it when Grant disarmed me but it's still ticking so surely…"

"I don't think the ticking is what it is powered by. Maybe you dislodged a gear or cog? I'll have to look. Either way you'll be with us a while longer." Fitz takes the object from her scowling at it worryingly.

Jemma can't breathe… her world is in peril and she is trapped maybe forever. The edges of her vision go dark and she faintly hears Grant calling her name.

And gravity as well as timeline travel wins against Jemma Simmons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I own nothing but the idea. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did in fact enjoy it please drop a line or two! More to come thanks for everything!-MM


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to thank my Betas Jan & Tabitha for all the hand holding in this chapter. I hope you all enjoy. This one fought me the whole way. I own nothing but Laurel.

As quickly as Jemma's world had gone black, it had resumed with equal speed. There is the sharp smell of alcohol beneath her nose, as she waits a moment before opening her eyes. She tries to take a quick stock of things; she's not hurt, thankfully. There is something hard and plastic-like under her head.

She takes a breath and opens her eyes.

Ward looms over her anxiously and the busy but eerily quiet street bustles on to her left.

"KInda Mommy, you passed out." Laurel informs her, Laurel's worrisome face fills her sight as she pets Jemma's hair fretfully.

Oh, yes, now she remembers. She is quite trapped in this alternate world, which reminds her of looking through a grimy view finder. Her breath is coming in and out fast… she had too… had too… (She can't finish her thought that's alarming for more reasons than she can ever name.)

"Hey, Hey, Hey, none of that." Ward soothes her running his hand up and down her arm. Up stroke, "Breathe with me Jemma. In…. one…two.. Three… out four…five…six." Down stroke. "You're fine Jem." He says with a deep resolve she cannot possibly share. Despite that, she relaxes underneath his talented confident hands.

"I'm trapped here." Her voice takes on what she knows to be a hysterical tone.

"I will get you home Jem. "He said firmly standing from a crouch she hadn't noticed him taking. She watches as his worried forehead wrinkles smooth out, he asks gently. "Can you sit up?"

"Of course." She sits up suddenly realizing she is laying on a New York City side walk, using a neon purple Black Widow back pack for a pillow.

She stands quickly trying not to think the diseases that could be infesting the side walk. She stands too quickly though, and more or less sways into Ward's arms. "Easy, sweetheart." He says it softly as though he's talking to a frightened horse.

"What if, if there's nothing to go back too?" she whispers staring at his chest.

"We'll figure out how to cross that bridge when we get to it." He replies giving her arm a reassuring squeeze, she watches him gather Laurel's things, her heart settles into a normal pattern, nerve slightly calmed with the easy way he redirects them back indoors.

"First we have to build a bridge to cross." Fitz adds in.

Jemma had forgotten Fitz was even there she feels briefly guilty for becoming so oddly wrapped up in Ward.

"I have a theory concerning that." Ruby put in.

"Which would be?" Ward asked, they're a few steps below Leo and Ruby on the stairs, Ward is still slightly taller than Leo. It strikes her as funny; she stifles the ill-timed laugh as she feels something tug on the tail of her jumper. A downward glance finds Laurel looking up at her with those curious brown eyes of hers. "I know you wanna go home like Dorothy, but I'm glad you're here to be my Kinda Mommy for now…" Jemma feels an insist tug, in the vicinity of her heart. Laurel's earnestness reminds her of her world's Leo. This pang of sorrow has not a thing to do with her missed window to go home.

"That's lovely sweet pea. Dorothy?" She cards her fingers through the girls hair she knows the reference, her rattled brain simply cannot place it.

"Wizard of Oz. Nice parallel baby." Ward explained as Jemma picked the girl up. Ward keeps his hands at the ready, as though to catch them. Jemma settles Laurel on her hip with little effort. Laurel's chin settles on her shoulder, as though there has always been a spot carved on to Jemma's chest, just for her.

Jemma tunes back in to Leo and Ruby's conversation. They've journeyed to the door in the time she's been lost in thought. "I think the universes sit side by side, because if she was going tear hole in fabric of existence, and step through it'd have to be. Especially, if you take into account time slippage and rotational pull of the varying universes gravitational ratios." Jemma's other worldly sister is apparently, an astrophysicist as well as a house wife, how handy.

Jemma feels out of her depth on all fronts except one, Laurel.

She's not sure why that is, Jemma is not really a kid person but she supposed there was something to be said for Laurel having no expectations of her and still trusting her completely.

=/=/=

The thing about the way she and Fitz worked was, she gave him a solution to a problem and he built the delivery method. This time though, she had no solution for once she wasn't the smartest woman in the room, it was unsettling to lay her fate in the hands others and do something else.

That's what she does though, picks one of her, abandoned projects to work through and ignore her black holes of fear, that the world they're preparing to tear her into will be somehow wrong, broken, or simply gone.

Still she checks their progress every night, though tonight when she looks up from her project, she finds she is alone the rest of the lab dark all but for her corner. She checks her phone box as she closes everything down; there are three messages from Grant. One reminds her she said she'd be home hours ago, another tells her where he has left food for her. The last is Laurel saying goodnight.

-/-/-

When she comes home she expects the house to be silent and dark. It's quiet, but the light over the sink in the kitchen leaves Grant back lit at the table, with a coffee cup for company and a tiny tea cup waiting for her.

"Grant you should be in bed. You have the early rotation in the morning." She says and he smiles at her in the half light, a few weeks ago the similarities between her Ward's smile and this Ward's would have made her sick but now she just finds it… attractive. She can see light in it where once, she only saw the pit of his darkness it's surprising, but she'll ruminate on it later.

"I acclimatized to your wonky time table ages ago. I'll be fine. Sit; tell me what's on your mind." His words are gentle, yet again. There's a steely knowing behind them though. He sips his coffee; his gaze invites her, wordlessly to sit down opposite him.

She sits and settles on deflecting his questions. "Whatever makes you think there's something on my mind?"

"There always is Jemma. No matter the version, circumstance or world I know my wife." He says and she sips her tea to think out her response. The sweetness of the honey and the tang of the lemon hit her tongue. He does he do that? Remember the littlest thing, for example what makes for her perfect cup of tea,

She swallows the hot liquid, hoping it can melt this balled up fear in her throat just enough so that she may speak it. "What if my world's a wasteland? What if I can't go back?"

He sits his cup carefully aside, taking a beat, clearly trying to find the right answer. The way he looks at her is appraising, like he's deciding if she wants the truth or a comforting lie. She can see the moment he settles things in his mind, like a shadow clearing from his eyes. "Both possibilities are likely I'll give you that. In order to survive either, you're going to have to do something that doesn't come easy for you…"

He pauses giving her a soft little grin that makes her heart swoop pleasantly. "You have to put yourself first above anything else. If it is in fact a wasteland? You do whatever you have to do, in order to survive. "

"And if I'm stuck here?" she forces him to finish the thought. He picks up his cup again, almost as if to distract himself.

If you're stuck here, I'll get you a new identity and you can rebuild your life." She opens her mouth to speak and he cuts her off. "You owe me, Ruby, Fitz, or Laurel nothing."

"How do you even exist?" Jemma whispers.

He smirks at her. "I often wonder the same thing about you."

"It's just that you're so different from my version of Ward… he's not kind or paternal in anyway. He'd kill house plants and people alike given good motivation, or really any motivation."

"I'm not him and you're not her but I still like you Jemma."

"I like you too." She confesses and just for a moment the ticking of the clock over the Holovision is a comfort and not harbinger of her failures with every tick. In this moment, she is okay exactly as she is.

-/-/-

Jemma has never been in love, so she doesn't know what it is until she watches him go out with a woman named Kara for New Year's Eve.

She has no place to put the jealousy she feels. He's not her boyfriend, her husband, her anything, but somewhere between their nightly tea and coffee dates to recount their days and living this odd assimilated life of hers she's fallen very deeply, into like with him and it edges toward love as she watches the ball drop with Laurel curled in her lap.

Laurel blearily eyed sits up and kisses Jemma's cheek. "Happy New Year Mommy."

"Thank you Darling, We should be getting to bed." She gives the girl a bright smile as she disentangles from her to get to her feet.

"Can I sleep in your bed?" She asks already drifting to sleep as Jemma caries her to bed.

"Sure thing Dove."

She stands there a moment wonder where in the crowd Grant was and pushed down her desire to be at his side. She hitches Laurel up in her arms.

Despite his mercurial smiles and comforting embrace, He was not hers in any way, shape, or form.

"Happy New Year Grant." She whispers to the empty room the sound of the celebrations seeping through thin apartment walls is the only thing to stand witness to her words.

"Holovision disengage." She commands the holographic television to turn off.

Laurel's already asleep when Jemma lays her in the bed and covers her up.

-/-/-

When Kara presses her made up lips to his he still fights down a feeling of wrongness. This time is different than the others, it's not just that his wife is dead, but the added factor of somewhere deep inside wanting it to be the woman he left at home.

He shrugs it off and works himself deeper into lie of the kiss.

When he arrives home he intends to kiss Laurel as is always part of their yearly tradition, even if he has to wake her up when he gets back, he still presses a new year's kiss to her forehead before schlepping off drunkenly to his bedroom.

This time though the house is dark, peacefully quiet when he journey's to Laurel's room. He finds her missing and has a moment of alarm before thinking to check Jemma's room.

He can see their silhouette in the ethereal light given off by Jemma's phone box in nightlight mode.

Jemma lies on her back with Laurel attached to her like a barnacle. Her arms around Jemma's middle and her head resting on Jemma's chest.

He thinks momentarily of waking them, to warn Jemma of Laurel's famous mule kicks and to kiss his little one as tradition demands, but he just can't disrupt their calm.

"Goodnight Ladies. Happy New Year." He whispers into the silence.

-/-/-

As he lay in bed staring at the ceiling, he rubs the center of his chest to force away, the way his heart aches at his currently reality. He likes this version of Jemma and that will be gone one day as well.

He just can't shake how perfect they seemed in that moment, lax in sleep and for a second he'd thought of both them, Laurel and this Jemma as his girls.

-/-

Grant creates Jemma's new identity out of necessity, there's only so long you can hide a woman the world presumes to be dead without getting caught. She understands that, and she'd stopped using the cloak to get to and from her lab. Instead she opts for a Nano mask. She uses a picture of Skye for a likeness; as far as Jemma can tell Skye doesn't not exist in this world.

She wears the mask while out and about; at home she leaves the mask disengaged because it seems to unsettle Laurel. The girl is surprisingly talented at keeping her secret, all the same.

=/-/-

As he grows closer to Kara, he feels as if he's cheating on her by keeping Jemma a secret.

He finds Jemma in her bed room writing on a huge old fashioned whiteboard she'd had him install on the wall for her, just a few weeks ago. It had been a lot of work, almost more than it was worth but the laughter and bickering about where the thing should go had more than made things worthwhile.

He could feel something slipping into place, that's why he's here having this conversation to stop himself from falling ass over tea kettle in love with Jemma Simmons once again. "Jemma, can we talk?" He asks leaning with his back braced on the door frame, as he tries to project a confidence that is at least forty percent fake.

She looks over her shoulder at him marker poised over the board for half a second before answering him. "Yes, of course what do you need?" she asks gifting him with a smile with some serious wattage behind it. His heart stutters.

He thinks "I need your permission, please don't give it. Please, please, deny me." He doesn't say that.

Instead, "I want to tell Kara about you, the real you. Before you ask I know I can trust her she's not out you and complicate our lives." He says it all in one big sentence.

Her brows quirks for half a second he think she might say something, instead she gives him a small nod of affirmation. "Of course, I would never stand the way of your happiness Grant." Her acceptance literally stings.

He'd hoped he hadn't been alone in his feelings.

-/-

Kara accepts his explanation of things fairly easily, the legacy of technology and medical advancements his Jemma had left behind was known not only through the circles of guardian's but on a worldwide level as well. Alternate universes weren't as big a leap for Kara as it had been for him, thankfully.

When Kara meets her Jemma's mask isn't active, it frightens Laurel if she leaves on too long, so it comes off at home. If Grant's honest, the mask unsettles something in him too. It's like some corner of him is attracted to the face of, and it makes being attracted to this Jemma easier and more difficult, it complicates an already exponentially complicated situation. So he's glad she leaves it off and while she does, he lets himself deal with what her beauty stirs in him and forgets the odd feeling the mask gives him altogether.

-/-/-

They're having a little get together for no real reason other than Jemma likes to cook. Lucky for Fitz, otherwise he might starve under Ruby's care.

When he comes in with Kara holding tight to his hand Jemma turns at the sound of the door closing. "Oh you're back good! Taste this, Fitz says I'm off I think he's full of it." She shoves a spoon full of bolognaise into his mouth without a second thought. Then she turns to Kara. "Hello, I'm Jemma lovely to meet you." She grins brightly at her while she wiped her hands on her apron.

She holds out her hand which Kara shakes firmly.

"Likewise."

Grant sees the moment Kara is knocked over by Jemma's light just the same as him. He swallows his mouth full of food. "It's good, Fitz is full of sh-"

"Hi daddy!" Laurel runs up interrupting him and he nips her out of the air on reflex. "What's Uncle Leo full of?"

"Bull. Say Hello to Miss Kara."

While she squirms to be put down she says. "Hello…You wanna see my room?" He sneaks in a kiss on her cheek, before he lets her down grudgingly, his own baby doesn't cuddle anymore. It makes him sadder than it should. Jemma's smiling as if she can read his mind.

"Sure…" Kara lets herself be led away by Laurel.

-/-/-

When Kara returns she finds, they're setting the table and talking about their days quietly. As if it is likely something they do every day. Fitz and Ruby are having a spat that is mostly playful and Grant dips down as he sets a plate on the table. He rests his chin on Jemma's shoulder to whisper something conspiratorially, She snickers and gives a snort of amusement and says something in return that Kara can't catch.

The table set, food about to be presented, Grant turns off the holotable Jemma had been working at whilst cooking. She makes a screechy sound as though something is attacking her.

"What I saved the work." Grant replies while Jemma is clutching her chest.

"Don't do that to me." She replies in serious concern.

"I know better than that by now Jem." He gives her one of those disarming smiles Kara thought had only been aimed at her, guess not.

She's not jealous; he's allowed to smile at people, even the ones who resemble his dead wife.

Dinner goes well enough, the conversation is lively and everyone seems at ease with her but Kara just can't shake the feeling she's a band aid in place of something bigger.

Grant's eyes linger on Jemma. On her face, her hands as she gestures at Leo Fitz her work partner in both dimensions apparently, the thing that clenched it for Kara though was Laurel, the little asked Grant if she could have a cookie for dessert. Grant without missing a beat "What did your Mommy say?"

"She said I had to eat my peas first." The girl retorts actually batting her lashes at him. It makes Kara smile despite the odd little pain her realization she is the other woman brings. She barely manages to tune back into the conversation going on before her.

"And did you?"

"Yes." Laurel gives a solemn nod.

"Then why're you asking me?"

"I can't reach the cookie jar."

As Grant picks up his daughter, he shouts. "Hey Mommy, reveal your Oreo stash or meet the wrath of Lady Laurel." As Laurel's happy giggles fill the room Kara knows what she must do.

-/-

When he walks Kara to her door she is unusually quiet. "Did I do something wrong?" he asks afraid he'd made a misstep somewhere.

She looks at him. For a long, moment. "No."

He pushes her a little. "Then why're you being so quiet all the sudden that's not like you."

"I think maybe we met at the wrong time. Whether you realize it or not, you're building a family with her." He doesn't have to be a genius to know who she's speaking of as she looks down at the set of keys in her hand.

"I don't-"He starts to defend himself.

She looks up at him and the amount of kindness in her eyes hits him like a brick. "Let me finish please, you're half in love with that woman any one with half a brain can see it. Whatever is holding you back from the thing you want? I won't be a part of it. You're a good man and you deserve happiness and I think you should go for it. I won't stand in your way or be your excuse. I will be your friend though."

Grant groaned. "She's not my wife." He confesses to the clouds as he tosses his head back, as refused to meet her eyes.

"No, I can't imagine what you're feeling, but moving on with me or moving on with someone who looks like her, you're still going to feel the same things, if you're going to go through the steps to move on its going to hurt, it might as well be with the woman you really want."

"Maybe you're right." He admits.

"I know I am." She smiled at him. "Friends."

"Always." He kissed her cheek.

-/-/-

He walked home rather than take the cab. It would give him time to think. By the time he reached his front door he'd made a choice.

When he walks in she's writing something in her tablet. Her hair is shielding her face from view.

"Jem?"

"Hm…" she whispered barely acknowledging him. Totally lost in thought, completely immersed in her work.

"Be with me." He says it plainly, straight forward the only way he knows how.

Her head snaps up at that. "What?"

"Will you be with me? Like really be with me?" He says again.

There's a pained look in her eyes and tight furrow in her brow, it's got him worried but not deterred. "I'm not her." She reminds him.

He crosses to her to stand before where she sits cross legged on that frumpy, uncomfortable couch. "I know, I want you. For as long as you are here, I want you, I mean if you want me back. If you can't forget all the things the other-"God since when does talking make him itch to touch her? He stuffs his hands in his jean pockets staying utterly still, waiting.

She hurriedly cuts him off."No, I mean yes, I mean I want to be with you. Comparing the two of you is like apples and oranges, and even if every time I look at him I ache for you, even if you forget me the second I return to my world, I'd still want you." She unfolds herself to kneel on the couch cushions. She grins at him, "I thought I was going to have to say something…Kara is a perfectly nice-"

He cuts her off with a gentle kiss, because as much as he loves her voice God knows he's wanted to kiss her for fucking ages.

When the kiss spirals into something hotter he can taste Oreo's and white wine on her tongue. He wonders not so idly, what her skin tastes like.

"Eww, Daddy I have to pee. Could you stop that?"

He growls in frustration he can't help it.

Jemma laughs as they break apart. "This is only the beginning Grant, We've a while yet." She climbed off the couch "Now my Darling, do you need help? Is the loo broken?"

"I sent Dopey the bot thingy down after my black widow Barbie, he never came back with it." She confesses with a worried expression.

"Laurel honey we don't bath Miss Widow in the loo alright, it's inventive but unsanitary." Jemma says.

"I'll get the plunger. Take her to my bathroom." He turned back smiling "You get to Tell Fitz his goddaughter drowned his precious bot in toilet water, please record it on your phone box for my viewing pleasure." He frins heading for the kitchen.

"You're a pratt." She snarls at him with no real heat.

"What's a pratt?"

"It's British for butt head, and Laurel Jemma? You flush something again. Daddy will be majorly irked, first warning is that clear?" He says retrieving the plunger from beneath the sink.

"Yes! But I really do gotta pee!"

"Okay dove, let's hurry." Jemma ushers her to his bedroom where there's an ensuite bathroom and he goes down the hall, to unclog the john and save Black Widow.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I own nothing but Laurel Jemma Ward. The moon walks are idea presented in Fringe, I do not own it I merely expanded on it. Thanks to my completely AWESOME and so incredibly helpful beta Myranda! I hope you guys enjoy and if you would feel so inclined please leave a review with your thoughts critique is welcome so long as its gentle!-MM

"You don't need my permission to ask Jemma out. You didn't need it the first time around, either. You know the real reason you asked me to lunch is that you feel like you need Jemmie's permission to love someone else. I'm as close as you can get." Ruby points her fork at Grant, who remains silent, staring at his salad bowl.

Ruby glances out at the street in front of the bistro where they were having lunch. Called "Hand's", it is an odd place but the food is great. She looks back at Grant. He seems so confused; her heart breaks for him a bit.

"My sister was austere and scientific to a fault, but she was absolutely, insanely in love with you. You were her whole world and, when you love someone like that, you want them to move on and be happy. Trust me, Wherever Jem is? She's okay with this. In fact, she likely thinks it's fascinating that, of all the ways to move forward, you do it with her doppelgänger."

He finally finds the courage to look up at her. "I really like this Jemma. I just don't want to betray what I had with my wife."

"The only way you betray Jemmie is by not living your life. But maybe you need to build a new life. Do things with this Jemma you didn't do with my sister. Take her to Captain America on Broadway, " Grant looks absolutely horrified at the suggestion, which makes Ruby smile in fondness. Grant has always hated the theatre, which meant Ruby was always Jemmie's go-to date for Broadway shows. She shrugs and changes tactics. "Or get a skywalk pass and take her on a moon tour."

Grant snorted despite himself. "Your sister thought Moon Walks were pedestrian, but wanted to wait until Mars was inhabitable so we could honeymoon there."

"In her defense, everyone does a moon walk on their eighth grade field trip. But that's not the point. The point is, Grant, that you can move as slow as you want. Just move."

-/-/-/-

Jemma goes home for lunch, as has become her habit when stressed by the rigors of work. Sometimes Grant joins her, or sometimes, like he had three weeks ago, he has lunch with Ruby. Today, she finds herself alone to decompress. She is working in a world in which she is at least three steps behind. It's taxing at best and painfully difficult at worst. She makes herself a cup of coffee and journeys to her room to lie back on her bed and read. It's a truly dirty novel that's mostly a trash read. She likes to use it to quiet her brain. Before she can even reach for her tablet, though, she finds a dress laid out across her purple coverlet.

It's beautiful, a classic A-line cap sleeved shift of black lace with pale rose colored flowers patterned all over the garment. A black silk ribbon is tied at the waist. The dress is breath-taking in its simplicity. It's nothing like the Jemma of this world would have preferred, based on the wardrobe Jemma has been borrowing to date. The other Jemma seemed almost perfunctory and utilitarian in her dress; there were a great deal of dark-colored pant-suits and militarized tactical gear. Her choices had not had much in the way of girlish items, and this dress looks never before worn. The idea that Grant bought it for her causes an odd swooping feeling her chest.

Next to the dress is a small envelope. She opens it up and pulls out a message written on plain paper. She recognizes Grant's boxy scrawl from reading his grocery lists.

Meet me at Rockefeller Center at 8 P.M and before you even think it, Laurel is taken care of. She's excited to hang with the Hunters tonight. Lance lets her play with Android Partner. Anyway, I hope you like the dress and other surprises I have planned. Looking forward to seeing you.- Grant

The prospect of a surprise date changes her whole day. She spends the rest of it happy and excited. She goes back to work grinning like a loon and humming to herself and not even Leo's eternally standoffish behavior can pop her happy bubble.

-/-/-

At exactly eight, Grant watches Jemma step from a cab and into the business of Rockefeller Center. She's wearing the dress he picked with Ruby's help.

He walks up behind her and covers her eyes. "Guess who?"

"Hm. Brad Pitt."

His face screws up in utter disgust and confusion. "The porn star?"

She turns to face him. "Really? What is it with this world?" She shakes her head. "Never mind that, what is it you've planned?"

He can't help but notice how the glittery rose gold-tinted eyeshadow brings out the lighter shades of brown in her eyes. Her lipstick matches the dusty rose-colored flowers on her dress. He knows because, try as he might, he can't stop staring at her smiling lips. He wants to kiss her right there in front of God and everybody. But they're not quite there yet. Though he hopes this gets them moving in a more intimate direction.

"Would you care to catch the Space Shuttle and dine in Bistrot Chez La Lune?"

She lights up. "There is a café on the moon?" Jemma has done some research when she first came to this alternate universe unable to resist the idea of space travel. She knew the rates weren't astronomical, but nor where they cheap. It's heartwarming that Grant went to the trouble.

". Yes, there is a restaurant, a souvenir shop, hotel's and even a Tiffany's Jeweler."

She grabs his hand and practically bounces up the line.

-/-/-

So we just get in and sit down? There are no space suits or anything?"Jemma says, brows crinkling into what Grant calls "Resting Smart Girl Face."

"Nope, just buckle up and enjoy the ride. Though, exit and reentry to earth might be turbulent, like on a plane, but I promise it's not too bad."

She buckles up and grabs his hand while peering out the window as their ascent begins. She turns to him, smiling eyes shiny with joy and exuding excitement. Against the cement-colored shuttle seat, she looks like a Degas ballerina in her feminine dress. When they exit the earth's atmosphere, they are shoved roughly back into the seats by the heavy jolt of gravitational force. Jemma laughs gleefully.

"Are you ready for this journey into the mystery, Grant?"

He wouldn't be here with her if he wasn't.

"I believe I am."

-/-/=

When the shuttle lands, they disembark to a gravity- and atmosphere-controlled causeway that leads into the rotunda of the Lunar Mall.

"You can rent space suits, shop and even make reservations for dinner, though I've done that already," he tells her, as she looks around in fascination.

They rent suits and he double-checks the reservation he made at Bistrot Chez La Lune. He wants everything to be perfect.

-/-

They put on the gear and gravity-leveling boots, which he explains make them capable to walk on the moon rather than take weird floating steps as astronauts did in the earliest days of the moon landing and resulting colonization. Of course, Jemma has millions of science-related questions he cannot begin to answer.

"Jem, that's above my intellectual pay grade, you'll have to go to one of Tour Guide Bots for that," he grins up at her while locking his feet into the metallic boots.

When they step out on to the barren, gray expanse of moon meant for quiet sojourns, Jemma looks up at the earth hanging above them in the heavens, half lit by the distant sun.

If Grant didn't already believe in God and all his tiny graces thanks to Laurel, he would have been reborn in his belief at the awe on Jemma's face. The brilliance of it put that sun to utter shame.

If memory can carry across space, time, and universes, that look will be one he carries into eternity.

"Can I take samples?" she asks and he can't help but smile.

"No, baby, that's a federal offense." She smiles at his soft, absent-minded term of endearment, which he's never used with her before, but she still looks unconvinced so he continues. "Punishable by death. You didn't come all this way just to die for some moon rocks, especially considering you can buy them at the gift shop with your name engraved on them."

He really likes that smile on her, he thinks. He might keep calling her "baby"; it hadn't stung nearly as much as he'd feared. That kind of term had only ever belonged to his wife, though he finds his heart is changing. Has been changing for a while, even.

"That seems counterproductive." Her words knock him from his musings of emotional complication.

He grins at her upper crust British attitude. "That's American capitalism, Jem."

-/-/-

At dinner, she takes fleeting glances at Earth between conversation topics.

"You miss home, Jem?"

"Oh! We'll take a shuttle back of course not."

"I meant your home. You can be honest, it won't hurt me."

"It's not so much miss as it is worry about. " She sighs and he can see the fear and hear it in her tone. They've stayed away from the "What if? game" for a reason. Yet if she wants to talk, he wants to listen.

"I know I'm needed there, and I'll eventually get back at some point. I guess what I never counted on was this world's Leo not trusting me."

"Fitz loves you, Jemma," Grant says, because how can he not. He should know she's too smart to accept that at face value.

"He'll talk theory with me, Grant, but he won't put any theory into action with me. He has Rue for that, here, and I understand. But how will I ever get back if the other half of me, scientifically-speaking, is mute and unwilling? He doesn't want my help. And I'm better off asking Ruby if I need help. It's been a long time, and I thought I'd soften his resolve but he still only tolerates me in her space."

"When she died, he just stopped. I wanted to do the same, but I had Laurel to think about. Then there was Ruby. She was always the third wheel of sorts on their adventures and was smart enough to keep up. She swept in and saved him, and now? Now, while his wife is just glad to have some form of her sister back but when you go back? Because you definitely will? He knows the floor is going to fall out from under her again. He's just trying to minimize the emotional damage. He's not trying to shut you out. I know that, but you need to know it too so talk to him." Jemma looks like she wants to say something but doesn't. Instead, her gaze just lingers on him.

"You're right."

"I don't hear that often." The string quartet playing in the corner starts in on 'Make you feel my love.' It softly emanates through the entire room.

He holds out his hand. "Wanna dance?"

"Love too."

-/-/-/-

She feels familiar and yet somehow different in his arms. Like their changing relationship gives each touch new meaning. He likes it. He'd always liked how strong Jemma – his wife Jemma - made him feel in juxtaposition to her tiny delicate frame. And here, this Jemma fits the same way. He misses his wife while simultaneously enjoying the woman in his arms. It is, to say the least, emotionally-confusing.

Jemma seems to sense his shifting mood, or maybe she can see his distraction. He can't be sure which it is, but after dinner and dessert, she says she'll just be across the way in the gift shop getting Laurel a trinket. "Take your time."

He dons his space suit and goes for a walk by himself.

He takes one of the less-traveled paths for privacy. When he reaches the end of the trail, he looks heavenward and speaks his peace. "I never thought I'd love anyone again, Jemmie, honestly. But that was assuming there's only one me and only one you. There are apparently countless Wards and Simmons out there. I miss you infinitely and I hope it never leaves me because it meant you were here and that I loved you. Because I did. I still do.

"I like her though and I think I could love her. I need you to know I won't forget any part of who you were but I'm letting go," he confesses to the heavens. He toys with the idea of flinging his wedding ring into space,, hoping it would reach her at least symbolically, but he dismisses it quickly. She'd want Laurel to have their rings. "And I hope you know, Laurel is everything you even dared to hope for. I love you."

Shit, he's talking to himself and crying. He can't go back to Jemma like this. He ducks into the nearest store to remove his face shield and wipe his eyes.

The store that happens to be nearest is Tiffany's. As he's gathering himself together, his eye catches the ad for "The Universe Chain." It was a bracelet, diamond-studded silver charms shaping stars and comets and jeweled planets.

He takes it as a sign from the universe, or perhaps even his wife. Jemma's birthday is next month, and he knows she'll love it. A pretty piece of jewelry physically reminding her of their beginning can't hurt either.


End file.
